OCZ halts value Memory module line

It has been quiet surrounding OCZ memory for the past year alright and initial hints now confirm that OCZ will be retreating from the value memory module market. Read carefully, value. See, OCZ's biggest market are now SSD drives, it took them over by surprize as 50% of their sales now is in some way SSD related.

XBitlabs reports that OCZ Technology Group, of the leading suppliers of premium memory modules, said Wednesday that it would drop its memory business partly so that to concentrate on SSD products that now target various market segments, including high-margin enterprise-oriented solutions. The company, however, will continue to sell advanced memory modules for enthusiasts.

"The Value DRAM segments basically were not providing any profit to the company. Given our SSD growth trajectory - SSDs are more than 50% of our business on a go forward basis - and that fact that we dominate all segments of the SSD market in terms of performance, it just did not make sense to keep selling Value memory at 3% margins," said Ryan Petersen, chief executive officer of OCZ Technology.

OCZ has four major dynamic random access memory (DRAM) product lines: Enthusiasts, Gamers, Special Edition and Value. The latter product line accounted for over two thirds of OCZ's sales in 2009. As a result, with 50% of revenue already commanded by SSDs, it makes more sense for the manufacturer to assign more resources onto further development of solid-state drives as well as advanced memory modules.

"We have not specified exactly which exact lines are going away, but the emphasis will be on not just maintaining, but growing the high-end memory offering. This is the area we are traditionally strong in and customers can expect to see new premium memory products launching as we scale back our lower end lines. The distinct lines of what will be cut is an ongoing process as we optimize the product offering moving forward," said Alex Mei, chief marketing officer of OCZ.